Jeff Green | Dec 11, 2019


It’s Official – there is a fellowship of the pig and it lives in Central Frontenac

They are not likely to chase a strip of bacon over the edge of a cliff into a fiery abyss, but that does not mean they are not committed to their quest.

It all started way, way back … well back in 2012. Michael McKenzie of Seed to Sausage held a party on Victoria Day weekend to mark the opening of a summer outlet for his fresh and dried sausage factory on Road 38, halfway between Tichborne 0and Sharbot Lake. He called the event the “Day of the Pig” and that first year a lot of people showed up, many of them from Toronto and Ottawa. You could tell the ones from Toronto from the black, tapered skinny jeans and ball caps that the men were wearing. The Ottawa attendees were cooler than the locals, but not by as much.

It got bigger each year, and eventually McKenzie decided to transform it from a party to a food festival and it was held at the Sharbot Lake beach, with support from the District 3 Rec Committee, in 2017. That was the only year when weather was a factor, but even with an entry fee of $20, a pretty good crowd attended.

Seed to Sausage then entered into some major retail ventures in the Greater Toronto Area and McKenzie decided not to run the festival at the beach in 2018, and almost canceled the Day of the Pig entirely, but ended up holding a stripped-down version at Seed to Sausage this past May. He told some friends that he was thinking of calling it quits, not because he did not enjoy the event but because he did not have enough time available to pull it together.

Those friends decided that the Day of The Pig was too well established and had too much potential as a local food event and a tourism draw for a community like Central Frontenac to let go of, so they began to meet. A new location, a plan of attack, and a set of responsibilities emerged over a couple of meetings, and the Fellowship of the Pig was born. Slowly, word slipped out about the fellowship, but they have remained a mystery until they emerged this week, in an unlikely place.

On the agenda of the final Central Frontenac council a meeting of the decade, at the tail end of the agenda package, item 16, under ‘Oher business’ it says: “Day of the Pig – that council receive the information and presentation from Councillor Heese regarding the Day of the Pig event.”

Councilllor Heese, it turns out, is a member of the formerly secretive fellowship.

And on page 142 of the agenda package there is a letter which reveals all of the members and something about their plans and how the township fits in.

“The members are Mike McKenzie (Seed to Sausage), Brian Wilson (Orbital Talent Inc.), Rob Moore (Cardinal Café), Ken Fisher (Sharbot Lake Business Group) and Victor Heese (Township Councillor). This group, informally called the Fellowship of the Pig, has met 3 times to begin planning for next year’s event (meeting notes included). Although it is still early in the planning process, we envision the upgraded Day of the Pig to be a Food and Beverage event with various artisanal food, beer, wine and distilled beverage vendors displaying their products. There would also be demonstrations by well known chefs, a pig roasting contest, and entertainment for all ages throughout the day.”

The group is seeking that council make the Day of the Pig a Central Frontenac event, and “appoint the group as a township committee either as a committee of council or a sub-committee of the Central Frontenac Rec Committee.”

This would set the stage for the township to provide various “in-kind” donations to the Day of the Pig, such as inclusion in the township insurance policy, free use of the Parham Fairgrounds, and access to other resources such as “fencing, barricades, tables and chairs, etc.”

The township is not expected to provide any financial support and the Day of the Pig is to be run as a not-for-profit event, although it will include vendors, including Seed to Sausage, who will sell their product as part of it.

Council decided to take on the Day of the Pig as a committee of council, using the precedent of the Frontenac Heritage Festival as a model for how to set up the relationship.

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